Lilly Jackson
by lovecats20000
Summary: "I am here to challenge Zeus." I said loud enough for everyone to hear. The place fell silent. Then the gods cracked up laughing except for two. The one I was certain was Hermes pointed towards the one in the middle.I charged and stabbed his foot. I am Lilly Jackson, daughter of Poseidon, god of the sea. I'm only six years old, yet here I am. I would say more but I'm a little busy.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer : I don't own this.

"Happy Birthday champ." I heard a familiar voice say. I opened my eyes and looked up at my sister Lilly. She had straight black hair that went to her shoulders and sea-green eyes just like mine. We got along great even though she was five years older than me, which made her eight." Thanks." I said. I got up and we both went in the kitchen. "Good morning mom." Lilly said. "What about me?" Gabe asked. Lilly frowned "What about you?" I laughed. She picked me up and put me in my chair(I don't know why don't ask.) then sat next to me. "Do you want anything for breakfast?"Mom asked her. "No tha-" before she could finish I shoved part of a banana in her mouth. She hardly ever eats and by that I mean about once every other day. She chewed it and then swallowed it. "I'll admit you got me that time you little squirt." She said before lightly shoving me. I laughed. "It's a miracle you don't fall out of your chair yet you fall out of bed every five minutes." Lilly told. I fall out of bed a lot and since we share a room she always picks me up and puts me back (Again I don't know why she acts like my mom she just does.). " Oh shut up" I told her although I knew she was just teasing me like always. " Maybe the bed has a curse on it. I suggest we burn it and get a really big dog cage so he can't fall out." I punched her while the entire table except for Gabe laughed.

Later that day we all went out to the grocery store. I looked at the little bite sized cheese's they sell. "How do they get it in such a tiny package?" I asked. "The cheese is small." Lilly said while smirking. I stuck my tongue out at her." Come on champ." She said before grabbing my hand and pulling me along. When we got home Gabe was playing poker and drinking beer as usual. Lilly took all the beer bottles off the table and dumped them out. "What do you think you're doing?" Gabe asked. "Dumping out your beer." She said. He went to punch her but slipped in a puddle of water. She grabbed my hand and dragged me into our room. "Why am I in here?" I asked. "I don't want Gabe to have any chance to hurt you." she told me. She went to walk back out but I grabbed her arm. " Stay here." I told her. I didn't want Gabe to hurt her either. "Alright." She said. Later that day we got to celebrate my birthday but with Gabe there it wasn't as much fun.

**This is Lilly's point of view.**

Later that night Percy laid down in his bed and I laid down in my bed. The lights were out when I heard Percy ask ,"How did you get that scar across your eye?" **(This is Lilly's flashback.) **_I __was six ,_ _Percy was one. I was in a dreamless sleep, when I heard a voice in my mind say, " You have to get to Olympus."_

_"What is that ?"I asked it._

_"Home of the gods." It explained._

_"Who are you?" I asked.  
_

_"I am your father Poseidon."_

_"You mean you're the king of the seas."_

_"Yes. Zeus wants to kill your brother. You have to get to Olympus and stop him!"_

_Then I woke up. I looked at my alarm clock , It was 8:40 A.M. Everybody would be up in about 20 minutes, except Gabe who probably wouldn't be up until noon. There was a sword and a knife on my nightstand that hadn't been there last night. I grabbed a book bag and put them in it.I looked inside of my nightstand and found a water bottle full of a sweet-smelling yellow liquid, a map to Olympus, and some stuff I couldn't identify. I put everything but the map in my bag, then folded up the map and put it in my pocket. As quietly as possible I snuck out of the house. I followed the map to Olympus and ended up at a sky scraper.I pulled out the sword and walked up to the desk inside the building. "Can I help you?" he asked. "I need to get to Olympus as soon as possible." I told him."I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about." I laid my sword on his desk. He pointed to the elevator. "Six-hundreth floor." He said. I grabbed my sword and went in the elevator.I pushed the button for the 600th floor and the elevator shot me up like I was in a rocket. When it stopped I was standing in the throne room. The gods were each twenty-feet tall and were talking about something. "I am here to challenge Zeus." I said loud enough for everyone to room fell silent. Then the gods cracked up laughing except for two. The one I was certain was Hermes pointed towards the one in the middle.I charged and stabbed his foot. He yelled out in pain and the laughter stopped. I slashed him five more times before he stood up and brought out his lightning bolt. He aimed it at me and I jumped straight up. The lighting reflected off a mirror and hit Zeus in the chest. Zeus went flying 50 yards and slammed into the wall. He shrunk down to mortal size and glared at me. His bolt vanished and a dagger appeared in his hand."You can't kill a god!" He exclaimed. "Your right, gods can't be killed, but they can be hurt." I told him and then I charged. Zeus blocked my shot and tried to stab out my left eye but I bent backwards and stabbed his leg. This time he tried to stab my right eye and ended up slashing me instead."Duck!" I heard the voice from my dream yell. I did and a trident flew past my head and hit Zeus in the stomach. He dropped to his knees and clutched his stomach. "You win for now but mark my words I will get you for this Lilly Jackson!"Lightning flashed in front of me and I was standing in front of the door to our apartment. I put away my sword and walked inside._

**(Lilly's flashback has ended.)**

"Lilly?" Percy asked.

"What?" I asked.

"You've been silent for ten minutes, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Wait a minute you weren't there the morning you got the scar and your eye was all bloody. What happened?"

_(Continued to her flashback)_

_I put away my sword and walked inside." Lilly Jackson where have you been?" My mother demanded. "I was... at a friend's house." I said casually.I went over to the sink and washed off my eye untill all that was left was the scar that's there to this day.I still couldn't belive all that had happened and how I knew how to fight, oh well. Percy walked in the living room." Lilly!" He said as soon as he saw me, he tackle hugged me. What surprised me the most is that he actually pronounced it correctly."Lilly you weren't here when I woke up and that was over 6 hours ago!" Mom said. I looked at my watch. It was 3:30 P.M. "I haven't seen her in a while and her parents picked me up at 8:45 A.M." I lied. "Why didn't you tell me ?" She asked obviously upset. "I didn't know until this morning and I didn't want to wake you." I said. Percy had his back turned. I showed mom my palm and summoned the symbol that stood for Olympus. She was about to say something but I put my finger to my lips and gestured to Percy. She nodded. _

**Lilly's Flashback has ended.**

" I was at my friend's house remeber."I told Percy.

"What happened to your eye?"He asked.

"Her cat scratched me." I said.

"That's a mean kitty."He decided.

"Duh."I said. Percy laughed. I laid my head on my pillow and closed my eyes. If I could change the choice that got me that scar I wouldn't. I'd do anything for Percy.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns this. Some things from the Lightning Theif movie so credits to them.

Percy's Point of view

It was about two months after my birthday. Nothing new had really happened. Except our regular messes like the one that was about to happen. Gabe was playing poker at a friend's house so it was just mom, Lilly and me. "Hey guys can you do the dishes?" our mom asked as she was quickly trying to get ready for work. "Sure." Lilly and I said at the same time. "Thanks." She said. A few minutes later she left. We didn't have a dishwasher so we went over to the sink and started to wash the dishes. After we finished I took my sponge and threw it at her. "Nice catch." I said when she turned around. She unhooked the sprayer and drenched me and the apartment , with soap and water.I had managed to find a squirt gun, so before long we were both soaked. "Hey watch this." Lilly said. She ran and then slid across the wooden floor. I tried it too, but I crashed into the couch so hard it fell over. It landed on the floor in a way that it looked like a tent."Your clumsy." Lilly said. "I am not!" I insisted. "The only other logical explanation is that your going camping in the living room and didn't have a tent." She said while laughing. "It's not my fault I slipped!" I said. She looked at me. "You know some people can control water if they try hard enough." She told me. I was sure she was kidding but she didn't look like she was. " I don't get." I said starting to get confused. " Someday you will." She said before messing up my hair. "Cut it out!" She knows I hate it when she does that. "Why do you hate that so much?" "Well how would you like it if I messed up your hair?" I said. She laughed."Go for it shortie." I tried but I ended up dangling from the end of her hair. She put me back on the floor. "I said you could mess up my hair , but I never said you could use me as a jungle gym." She said. I walked to the other side of the room and tried to slide across the floor and this time I didn't fall over. Mom walked in and sighed. I hadn't realized how long it had been since she left. "What mess did you guys get into now, I mean all I asked you to do was the dishes." Lilly smirked, "Oh I'm sorry I thought you said apartment." I walked back to the other side of the apartment and slide , but this time I crashed into Lilly and we both fell to the floor. "Good job." She stated before standing up. I stood up and tackled her and she fell again. "What are you, a football player?" She asked. Mom smiled, "Just clean this up." She said. It surprisingly didn't take us long. Later that night I had the strangest dream ever.

This is Percy's dream.

I had a dream that Lilly was walking along a street, she had a bag on her shoulder and a sword in one hand. Her hair was up in a ponytail for the first time, and her eyes were lined with coal. The strangest part was that she was wearing a breastplate like she was about to go into battle. Then she turned and walked up to a huge building. It looked like the empire state building. She opened her bag and opened what appeared to be a bottle of vitamins. She took one out , ate it, and then put the bottle back in her bag. She walked inside and went in the elevator. The elevator had buttons leading up to 103, but then it had one button that said 600. Lilly pushed it and the elevator shot up like a rocket. When the elevator stopped she walked in the room. There were twelve thrones, but there was only one person there. I can't exactly describe what he looked like because he kept changing. He was just standing there, not doing anything. He looked at my sister. "Lilly Jackson." He said without any emotion. "Zeus." Lilly said in a similer way. "You are brave for coming here, or perhaps you are just foolish." Zeus said. I wanted to slap him, but all I could do was watch. Lilly looked at him. "I could say the same to you." "You defeated me two years ago." Zeus pointed a sword at her throat, "Let's see if you can now." She swung her sword at him but he blocked the strike, and swung at her head but she dodged the strike and stabbed his shoulder. He yelled out in pain but then swung at her head, he missed and slashed her cheek instead. A gust of wind knocked my sister to the ground. She pointed at the window and thousands of gallons of water burst in. She mimicked the action of throwing in Zeus's direction, and all of it seemed to swallow up Zeus. Lilly flung her hands to the sides and the water separated. Zeus coughed, he was drenched and obviously in no shape to fight. My sister put out her hand and a trident flew into it. She walked up to him and was about to stab him when he said ," Fine you win." "Swear on the river of Styx that you will not hurt my brother or send any monsters after him for at least a year." "I swear on the river of Styx that I won't hurt your brother or send any monsters after him for at least a year." He said. There was distant thunder but nothing happened. Lilly then just walked out of the building like nothing had happened. She walked back to our apartment building, and then stopped in front of our door. She took off her armor and put it in her bag, and also put her sword in there. Then she opened the door.

Percy's dream has ended.

I sat up in bed, breathing heavily. My heart was pounding in my cheast. I was burning up and I was drenched in sweat. My alarm clock said 5 A.M. I looked over at Lilly's bed but she wasn't there.I opened my door just enough for me too see out and looked around. Lilly had just gotten back apparently. Then I noticed something. There was a cut across her cheek just like the one in my dream. I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep myself from screaming. She hid her bag in the closet, then went into the bathroom. I heard the water running,but when she came out the cut was gone. I got back in bed before she could figure out that I had been awake. I never got back to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own this.

**Lilly's Point of view.**

I came back from fighting Zeus at about five A.M. I crawled into bed and slept untill about nine. Then went into the kitchen with Percy and Mom. Gabe still wasn't there (awesome). That morning I was eating an apple, since battles always make me hungry. Percy just picked at his food, which was odd because I don't know anybody that likes cold pancakes. "Are you alright?" Mom asked him. He didn't seem to hear her. "Percy." I said, I shook his arm. "What?" He asked. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine." He said , although he said it like he had a pet dog that got hit by a train. He's a terrible liar. "Since when do you like cold pancakes?" He looked at me, then pushed his plate away. "I'm just not hungry." He walked back into our room and closed the door. "Is he okay?" I asked mom. "I'm not sure." "I'll go talk to him." I decided. I walked into our room and closed the door behind me. "What's wrong." I asked. "Nothing." There was the dog getting hit by the train again. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's bothering you." I told him. "Well you can't help me because nothing's wrong." "Did Gabe do something to upset you?"

"No."

"Did I do something to upset you?"

"In a way."

"What do you mean?"

He started to talk about the dream he had the night before and I listened. How had he seen that?

"Percy that was just a dream." I lied. I decided I was going to have a serious talk with the gods. Showing that to a three-year old, I don't think so! About two hours later I told Percy I was going to a friend's house and would be back in a little bit. I wasn't lying when I said that, but when I got there I wasn't going to be too happy.

About a half hour later I walked up to the door and knocked on it. "What are you doing here?" Hermes asked. He had salt and pepper hair and blue eyes,he always looked like he was up to something. Hermes was dressed in his New York City marathon and his nylon running shorts like usual, the only thing that made him different from any other jogger was the fact that his shoes had wings on them. That worked. "Have you been showing my brother my fights with Zeus?" I demanded. "Hello to you too." He said sarcastically. _Yeah don't say hello to us were just snakes. _I heard Martha say. "Hi George hi Martha." I said hoping for once that they would shut up._ Did you bring me a rat?_ George asked. "If you two don't be quiet you're going on vibrate." Hermes warned. "Second of all why would you think I would show a three-year old your battles with Zeus?" He made it sound logical but I still didn't believe him. I raised an eyebrow. "Because you're the messenger of the gods and one of the only gods that gets along with Iris to where you could convince her to send an Iris message to my brother while he was asleep." "That doesn't mean that I did." Hermes said. "Well did you?" I asked. "Maybe." He said. "Wow." I muttered. "That is the worst lie I have ever heard from a god." His face turned pink. "Well I was trying to help!" He insisted. "Well you failed." I said. "I mean how on what level is giving my brother a nightmare helping?" "I figured you would stop trying to fight Zeus if it freaked your brother out!" he said.

"Again how is that helping?"

"If you keep fighting him someday you're going to get killed, I mean your eight and you're already doing something that I couldn't even do!" I took a deep breath and tried to get my temper under control. "Look Hermes, If you keep showing my brother that stuff, than he'll find out he's a demigod and then it will be more dangerous for him and me. Understand?" He nodded although he didn't seem so happy. "Fine." He agreed. After I got home the phone rang. "I'll get it." Percy yelled. I grabbed the phone before he could, "It's fine I got it." Demigods and phones remember. "Hello?" I asked. All I heard was laughter before the phone hung up. Probably Connor and Travis. I'll get them for that. "Who was it?" Percy asked. "Nobody." Percy didn't seem to understand. "Then why did the phone ring?" "It uh, has a mind of its own." I said as if it were that simple.

It was October the fifth (Several months later.), I had just turned nine on October third. I already had to go fight another monster, a fury. It was about three in the afternoon. I was wearing my green and brown camouflage t-shirt, with jeans and my combat boots. I grabbed my weapon bag, I had started using a green and brown backpack instead of the shoulder bag I used to use. "Where are you going?" Percy asked. "Just for a walk." I said. "Can I come?" He asked. "You wouldn't be interested." I told him. "Everytime you leave something weird happens." He pointed out. "Since when did something weird happen?"I asked."I didn't notice." Gabe muttered. "See it's just your imagination champ, I'll be back in a little bit." I gave him one last confident smile then I walked out. That was close. I walked out of the apartment building and then took my bag off of my back, I checked it for everything, A tiny container of poison, my knife, my sword, nectar,ambrosia,a little greek fire, my breastplate, and my drachmas. With all the monster fighting I did I actually had about three-hundred. I took out my knife which I normally used for monsters and zipped up the bag. My knife was imperial gold so I could easily kill monsters with it. The fury was about a mile from here, and I couldn't get a taxi, and with the gray sisters I might end up in texas, so I started to walk. The fury was in the middle of the woods. I sat my bag down and started to sneak up behind it,then I stabbed it. It exploded into golden dust. I put my knife in my bag and was about to go home when someone grabbed my arm and then my other one, I kept trying to punch them. "Cut it out." One of them said. I had seen them before at camp, although I had never talked to them before. Another one grabbed my bag, and they dragged me back to camp half-blood with me punching and kicking the entire way. "What do we do with her?" One of them asked Dionysus. He smiled, "Lock her in the top of the big house, where she can't cause any trouble."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own this. If I did Lilly would be in the books.

**Lilly's Point of view.**

They dragged me up the stairs in the big house and threw me into a room. The window was covered with wood so only a slight amount of light came in. I had given those guys a good beating but apparently it wasn't good enough. The door and window had a magic aura coming off of them, so I knew I was trapped for good. There was a bottle of water on the floor which I might have been able to use to escape. "Lilly are you in there?" I heard Connor's voice say. Their mom had brought them to camp earlier that year. "Yeah." I said. "What are you doing in there?" Travis asked. "Having a picnic." I said sarcastically. "Is that sarcasm?" Connor asked. "Yeah little bit." I said. One of them started to yank on the doorknob, but of corse it didn't budge. "It won't open." Travis said. "Magic." I told them. All of a sudden there was a loud thump. "Ow I hurt my foot." Travis said. "Here's a funny idea, don't kick it!" I yelled. After they left I finally had some time to think. I took out my cell phone and looked at the time it was five a clock. I pulled two crayons out of my pocket and closed my fist around them, one turned into a knife, and the other into a shield. Yep that's me. The nine year-old that walks around with weaponized crayons. To bad I couldn't have gotten to them when the demigods had dragged me here. I realized that Chiron didn't even know what Dionysus had done. Because Chiron was one of my friends. I put my weapons away. I had to get out of there somehow! I wondered what Dionysus would do if I escaped, I knew he'd be really mad. That gave me an idea, maybe I could use his temper to my advantage. I took my phone out of my other pocket and called mom since I was in camp. "Lilly where are you?" She asked.

"I'm at camp."

"Why?"

"Dionysus kidnapped me."

"WHAT!" I briefly told her what had happened. "Well can you escape?" She asked. "I think so." I told her. "What is your plan?" "Well I was thinking..." I told her my plan. She was silent for about a minute afterwards. "Lilly that's crazy." She said.

"You mean so crazy it might work?" I suggested.

"There's a fifty-fifty chance that might work, isn't there another way?"

"Afraid this is my only chance."

"What should I tell Percy?"

"Tell him I got lost." After that she seemed reluctant to hang up but she did.

I waited untill nightfall. An hour after I was sure Mr.D and Chiron had gone to sleep I pounded on the door like I was trying to escape even though I really wasn't. "Hey would you knock it off I'm trying to sleep down here!" Mr.D said. I heard him talking to Chiron about something but then it fell silent. I waited an hour then I started to pound at the door again. "I said KNOCK. IT .OFF!" Dionysus yelled. So far, so good. I waited another hour then pounded on the door one last time. "IF YOU DON'T CUT IT OUT I WILL COME UP THERE AND KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!" Dionysus yelled. I smiled. He might not have realized it, but he was playing right into my hands. In the very back of his mind he knew that I might try to escape, but if I didn't pound on the door in an hour like I had before he gave that threat, he'd think that I had given up because of his threat! Ha-ha! Then it would slip his mind completely. This time I waited three-hours, then I took off my combat boot. I kept two things in there, a tiny thing of matches and a drachma for emergencies. I know it sounds weird, but that night it probably saved my life. I took out a match and lit it so I could see what I was doing. I walked over to the window and pulled the wood off easily, now the window was going to be a problem. I grabbed the bottle of water and dumped it on the window. I willed the water to break through the window. At first nothing happened, but then the window shattered. I heard a door slam and Mr.D started to scream curse words. Then I threw the match on the floor and jumped out the window. I landed on my feet and ran towards the woods at the other side of camp half-blood so if a demigod did see me they couldn't find my family as easily. When I started to run through the woods I saw my bag. They sure didn't hide it well!I grabbed it. Then I ran out of camp. Grape vines kept trying to grab my ankles, I ran from them and got far ahead, until they started to come from all angles. They vines grabbed on to my ankles, then I got an idea. I opened my bag and started to rummage through it. By now the vines were up to my knees. I took out my container of poison, and dumped half of it on the vines. The tips turned brown, and then one vine infected the other until there were brown grape vines as far as the eye could see. I tore off the vines and kept running until the sun started to rise. I could run for hours on end from all the training I do. After that I sat down for about an hour. Then I ran all the way back home.

**Percy's point of view**

It was four in the afternoon the next day when Lilly got back. To start her pigtail was falling out, she was drenched in sweat, and from the knees down her pants had burn marks and holes in them. "Did you get lost in a blender?" I asked. She smiled, she had coal under her eyes for reasons I didn't understand. "I'm fine." She said. She put her backpack in the closet, then I noticed something around her ankle, a grapevine. I pointed to it."I had a dream about that last night." I told Lilly. She looked at it. "Must be a coincidence." She said. I had also had a dream about her getting kidnapped but I didn't mention it. After she took a shower, she actually ate a normal amount, which for her wasn't normal. I wasn't to happy when she left the house again.

**Lilly's point of view.**

I knocked on Hermes door. "WHY?" I yelled when he opened the door. I must have startled him because he dropped his wallet, or what was more likely, someone elses wallet. He picked it up. "What do you mean why?" He asked. "Would you stop showing Percy my demigod life!" "You got freaking kidnapped, I thought if I showed Percy that he might tell your mom and she could help you!"

"If Percy finds out he's a demigod, we're both screwed!" Some lady walking her dog stopped and stared at us. "I've got enough problems without you asking questions!" I told her. She ran away. "Look Lilly I don't think you realize how close you were to dying yesterday." Hermes said. "I'm a demigod it happens occasionally." Hermes mumbled something I didn't understand. "Sorry." He said after about two minutes. "It's fine." I said although I was still slightly annoyed. "You want to uh, come in?" He asked. "I guess." I told him. I walked inside and his house was cluttered, probably with other people's stuff. I picked up a jar and looked at the bottom I had dyslexia,but I could figure out what it said. "Property of Ella Kim." I read aloud. He gave me a sly grin, "What did you expect?" I just groaned and rolled my eyes at him. "Do you own one thing that's actually yours?" I teased. "Probably not." He said. I shook my head. _Are you guys done fighting? _Martha's voice said._ Where's my rat?_ George asked. "In the wall of someone's home where it's supposed to be." I said. Hermes laughed. We walked in the living room, he sat on the couch (can't exactly say his.) and I sat next to him. "So what do you plan on doing now?" Hermes asked.

"I'm not sure, I might have to leave soon." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I might have to run away."

"What! You can't do that Percy is going to be crushed!"

"Well I would prefer it if it wasn't under a monster."

"Ha-Ha."

"What are you sarcastically laughing about?"

"Why would you run away, I mean couldn't you protect him better if you were near him?" Hermes asked.

"The monsters are using my scent to track down Percy, plus I can still kill monsters." I told him.

"But then what?" he asked.

"I don't understand."

"What if Percy sees you someday, What if you die, what if -" He probably could have gone on all day, but I stopped him.

"That's a chance I have to take." It was silent for about five minutes.

"What would you do when you weren't fighting monsters?" Hermes asked.

"Go to camp." I said.

"Really after what just happened you would go back there?"

"Yeah, I mean I doubt he would try that again."I said. Hermes mumbled something I didn't understand.

"I should probably go before anyone gets worried." I said. He nodded reluctantly. He walked me to the door and managed a smile."Try not to get killed Lillypad." He told me. I smiled. "That would be nice." He laughed and then I went home.

**Percy's point of View.**

When Lilly came home everything seemed normal. No scratches, bruises, or grapevines so that was good. "Hi." I said. "Hello." She said. "You don't have your grapevine today, I thought that was your thing." I said before smirking. "Yeah I got sick of it." She said. She smiled then ruffed up my hair. Then her smile faded and she got a distant look in her eyes, like she was a thousand miles away. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Nothing champ, everything's fine." She said, as if fine was the worst thing in the world.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Rick Riordan does.

**Percy's point of view.**

It was about six months after the whole grapevine incident, Lilly seemed upset for no particular reason. We were in our room doing pretty much nothing. "Are you okay?" I asked." You've been acting strange lately." She actually smiled for the first time in a week. "I always act strange." I smiled "That's true, but this isn't the same kind of strange." I said. "What do you mean?" She asked. "You seem sad." I told her. "Just because I seem sad doesn't mean I am sad."She said.

"Well are you?"

"No, of corse not."

"Did that grapevine make you unhappy?"

"What?"

"It's been ever since you came home with that grapevine on your ankle that you have seemed upset."

"I happen to like grapes."

"How would you know you hardly eat?"

"Yes but I still eat a little, you have to if you plan on surviving." She said this as if it wasn't obvious.

"Really, I didn't know that." I said.

"Well now you do." I just rolled my eyes. She checked her watch, "I think we should go to sleep." She said. I looked at the alarm clock, "Yeah probably." I said. She hugged me. "Good night Lilly." I told her. "Good night champ." She said. Then we both went to sleep.

The next morning I looked at over at Lilly's bed. She wasn't there. "Lilly?" I yelled. No answer. I walked into the living room and to my surprise nobody was up yet. I went in the closet where Lilly kept her bag, it wasn't there. I went into mom's room and shook her arm. "What is it?" She asked. "Where's Lilly?" I asked. "I didn't know she left, probably off on another one of her adventures." Mom muttered. She got up, then she walked in the kitchen. "I'll call her." She said before picking up the phone. She stood there for a minute and listened, than she slowly put the phone down. "No answer." she told me. Little did I know, Lilly's name wouldn't come up again for a long time.

**Lilly's point of view.**

I was at camp. I had told my mom what I was doing, although I doubt she thought I was actually going to go with it. Dionysus gave me a hateful look whenever he could, but knew better than to start a fight. I was laying on the floor of my cabin, with a million papers in front of me. I had written down everything that had happened with the gods and monsters in the last three and a half years. _They have patterns._ My father had told me._ Watch for them._ Well, monsters attacked about every other day, Zeus attacked about once a year, Dionysus had kidnapped me once,and Athena usually attacked shortly after Zeus. I dug around in my backpack, I pulled out a calendar and was about to start wrighting on it when there was a knock on the door. I opened the door. Chiron was standing on the other side. "Lilly I want to talk to you." He ducked through the doorway and came in. "About what?" I asked.

"The Stolls told me that Mr.D kidnapped you several months ago, is that true?"

"Yeah but I escaped and it was a long time ago."

"He told me that he was keeping a hellhound up here that was accidentally summoned."

"Why would he keep a hellhound?"

"He said he thought he could train it, anyway I wanted to tell you that I am terribly sorry."

"It's fine it wasn't your fault." I said. He looked at all the papers on the floor.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Trying to figure out the next attacks." I told him.

"I still can't belive you're doing this." He said. Then he smiled at me. "You're brave Lilly Jackson." He said before walking out.

According to the math I had done I had a lot of fights coming up soon. Perfect. Then it was time for dinner. I dumped some of my fruit in the fire then went back to my table. Grover came over and sat next to me. "I can't belive you're doing this man, it's ridiculous." He said. "It's all for the best." I told him. I nibbled on some blueberries although as usual I didn't have much of an appetite. "Today there will be no archery." Mr.D annonced. "AWWWW!" Several people from the Apollo complained. Mr.D didn't seem to care."When your finished eating you may return to your normal activites." He said. After I finished eating I went back into my cabin. I had a monster to kill already! I grabbed my bag and walked outside of camp. Two vines wrapped around my ankles, but didn't try to strangle me this time. "Where do you think your going?" Dionysus asked. "To kill a monster." I answered. I took my knife out of my bag and cut the vines with ease although Mr.D grabbed my arm. "How in the Hades did you escape?" He asked. "That's for you to learn." I told him before pulling my arm away. "If you get killed though it's not my fault." He said. "Alright." I said with a hundred percent confident. He looked at me and walked up the hill.

I decided to summon the crazy taxi drivers, so I took out a drachma,and threw it on the ground. It sank through and I yelled "Stêthi, Ô hárma diabolês!" Which ment "Stop, Chariot of Damnation!" The ground darkened, then melted into a bubbling red liquid, a car erupted from it. It looked like it was made out of smoke. I briefly told them what was going on and that I wanted to fight the Minotaur. I got in and hoped that the driver had the eye. I didn't know their names, but apparently the driver did have the eye. "Give me the tooth!" The middle on said. "You had it yesterday!" The driver said. "Hey eye on the road!" the one closest to the window yelled. Thankfully I got there safely. I was maybe a half mile from my apartment building. I paid the Gray Sisters and got out. I heard the Minotaur roar so loud he shook the ground. I darted in that direction.

I got there a little later than I would have liked too. All the mortals were screaming in terror. I'm not sure what they saw but it was obviously terrifying. The Minotaur had a car lifted above its head. At least there was nobody inside. It threw it until it flew out of sight. "Hey!" I yelled. It turned towards the sound of my voice and got ready to charge. It charged at me but at the last second I jumped straight up and landed on it's back. It stood up and it almost succeeded in knocking me off but I managed to stab him with my knife. The monster exploded into dust. All the mortals that had gotten covered in the dust looked confused. I took off and ran back to camp. On they way back I saw our car and had to hide behind a bush, but otherwise everything went fine. When I got back to camp , everybody was doing their normal thing, so I decided to stop by my cabin. I looked at the calendar I had marked, I had a fight with Zeus one week from now. I put on my breastplate and went out to train, that was the best thing I could do right now.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Rick Riordan does.

**Lilly's Point of view**

The next day I got up, and ate breakfast. Then I trained. I swordfought everybody and did pretty much everything you could imagine. That's what I did for the next five days. I rested the next day so I wouldn't be tired when I fought Zeus. There was a knock on my door. "It's open." I yelled and Grover stepped in. "You've been training non-stop until now, did you get hurt?" He asked. "Nah I'm just going to be busy tomorrow and don't want to be tired." I said.

"Doing what?" He asked.

"The usual." I said.

"And that would be...?"

"Fighting the gods."

"That's normal for you!?"

"Yeah pretty much."

"Which one?"

"Zeus." Thunder rumbled but nothing happened.

"WHAT?"

"I do it about once a year I'll be fine." I insisted.

"In other words sliced in half." He suggested.

"Why would you think I wouldn't be able to?"

"I don't know , maybe it's because your short for your age which is only nine and a half, and you share a name with a flower!"

"My name is not a type of flower."

"Yes it is although no one's ever bothered to tell you that! That's why people call you lillypad!"

"No wonder people find my name combined with a threat to be funny."

"I can't believe you didn't know that."

"By the way only my friends call me lillypad."

"Whatever, the point is you can't do this." He said.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Fight Zeus!" More thunder.

" I can and I will." He looked at me. He could tell I wasn't going to give up so he left. The next morning I got up early and grabbed my sword, it was two feet long Celestial bronze, so it could easily hurt gods. I put on my breastplate, and walked out. I walked all the way down to Olympus. When I got to the throne room, Zeus wasn't there, Ares was. "Good you finally came." he said. I skipped the chat, and stabbed his arm. He summoned a sword and tried to stab me but I rolled out of the way and stabbed his ankle. He took a stab at me, but I got out of the way and he ended up stabbing the floor. I stood up and stabbed him in the throat. He dropped to the floor. "Would you like me to stab you again or are you ready to give up." I asked. He didn't say anything. "I take that your giving up?" I asked. He gave me the thumbs up. Now, I have never been stabbed in the throat, but I got the feeling he couldn't talk. I made him swear on the river of Styx that he wouldn't hurt Percy for at least a year in a half once he could talk again. I went back to camp.

When I got to camp Dionysus was waiting for me. "Where have you been?" he demanded.

"Out." I said.

"Out where?"

"The usual." He made me clean out the stables when I wouldn't tell him, which I didn't mind. I got to talk to Jackie, my peguses. _Dionysus is a jerk._ She decided. I fed her an apple. "I like being out here, I mean it could be worse." I told her.

_What did you do to annoy him?_

"I'm keeping my brother alive."

_That doesn't make any sense._

"Well, just like all the other gods he doesn't see it the way I do."

_How many ways could they see it?_

"The way they see it is that neither of us should be alive because we're children of the big three, that's why they try to kill us."

_It's not your fault you were born, that's their fault._

"I know, but like I said that's not the way they see it, they only see it they way they want to see it."

_At least not all the gods are after you , I mean it could be worse._

"That's true."

_How many aren't after you anyway?_

"Hermes and my father Poseidon."

_That's it? What about umm... what's her face?_

"Yes that's it. And I don't understand what you mean by what's her face. I mean it's a person's face. I don't think I could be more clear."

_No not... oh nevermind you'll never get it._

I left the stable afterwards. I walked out and started to train until dinnertime. Grover came over and sat by me. "I'm so glad you survived, was it Zeus or somebody else?" Thunder rolled in the distance. "It was Ares." I explained. More thunder. "How do you know when there going to attack?" He asked.

"I followed their patterns but obviously that isn't going to work much longer." Then I got an idea so crazy I didn't want to put it into words.

"Athena has a girl who spy's on the demigods that attack right?" I asked.

"Yeah, Melissa." he said. "Why?" He asked.

I told him what I planned on doing.

"That is so crazy it might work." He said.

I spent the rest of the night learning everything I could about Melissa. The next day I got up four hours early and took a sip of potion. I turned into a blond-haired girl with blue eyes, so in other words I looked exactly like Athena's spy. Then I went down to Olympus.

I approached Athena and kneeled. She didn't even know it was me! "Hello Melissa." She said. "Lady Athena." I said this as if I actually cared. "Have you recently learned anything about Lilly Jackson?" She said my name like a nasty plate of food. "Yes of corse!" I said before feeding her a bunch of false information."Yes she plans on leaving camp tomorrow." I finished. "Hmm... interesting." Athena said. I had told her about twenty other things, all of which were untrue and would put the screwing into Olympus. "We should be able to attack her brother at about one in the afternoon tomorrow, once she goes home and finds her brother dead she'll kill herself." Athena said. Just before I left I hid a tiny magnet. But this was no ordinary magnet. Once it was in place I could hear everything olympus said. I walked back to camp before anybody had woken up. I had a lot to do tommorow.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Rick Riordan does. Warning:**DO NOT ATTEMPT TO JUMP A BRIDGE!** **Lilly's Point of view.**

**Seven years later...**

I didn't have a driver's license, but if I didn't drive I wouldn't be able to get to the museum on time! Hades had sent out a fury that was going to attack Percy while his school went on a field trip. I was driving like a maniac. I was going so fast I was leaving black marks on the road. I came up to a bridge, that was starting to go up, so I backed the car up and slammed down the gas and jumped to the other side of the bridge. **(do not attempt)** The car spun around about five times, then the car went left and then right. It did that about ten times until I finally got everything under control. I pulled up to the museum. I ran inside the building and hoped that I wasn't to late.

**Percy's Point of View**

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. Then she exploded into golden dust. There was a girl standing behind where had been. She had straight black hair that went to her shoulders, sea-green eyes, and a scar across her right eye. She pulled a pen out of her pocket and tossed it to me. "I'm your sister Lilly remember, tell mom everything, I'll see you sooner or later." Then she turned into a puddle of water and vanished out the window. Mr. Brunner rolled in. He looked around and muttered something I didn't understand, then rolled out. I walked out and sat next to Grover, "Where's Mrs. Dodds?" I asked. "Who?" he asked.

But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead.

I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.

I went over to him. "Where's Mrs. Dodds?" I asked.

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"

It was about two weeks later when some one knocked on the door, which was weird because they hadn't called up or anything. "I'll get it." I yelled since mom was in her room. I opened the door and a girl with straight black hair and sea-green eyes was looking at me. Although the first thing I noticed was the scar across her right eye. I was sure I was dreaming until she smiled and said "Hey champ, how's it going?" "Lilly?" I asked. "Yeah that is my name." she said. I realized Grover was standing right behind her. Mom came out of her room and looked at Lilly. "We need to leave, like right now." Mom said. They had to drag me outside. "What is going on? What is happening?" I demanded. No one answered me. It was awkward silence for a long time. We got into the car.

Grover was sitting to my right, Lilly to my left.

I turned to Grover. All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom and Lilly… know each other?"

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But they knew I was watching you."

"Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Um … what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter."

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"Grover, now is not the time!" Lilly said.

We ignored her.

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like … Mr. Brunner's myths?" I asked. "Not myths Percy." Lilly said. "Then what...?" Before I could finish Grover answered.

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

"Of course." Grover said.

"Then why-"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

"That's why I left, I was attracting to many monsters. I wanted to stay Percy, but I couldn't." Lilly said.

"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions." Lilly turned pale "Great remind me there out to kill my brother." Lilly muttered.

"Grover, Lilly!" Mom yelled.

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?" Grover asked.

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

Lilly turned pale. "What?" she asked.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to … when someone's about to die." "Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Would you please stop fighting because now is not the time!" my mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. Lilly tensed all of a sudden for reasons I didn't understand. She muttered something about lightning I didn't understand.

Then I thought about Lilly … and the sword she had thrown me. I still had it. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay… ."

"Is everybody okay?" Lilly asked.

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Lightning.

That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

"I think everyone's okay." Lilly decided.

"Percy," my mother said, "we have to …" Her voice faltered.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

I swallowed hard. "Who is-"

"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?"

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

"She can't." Lilly said.

Mom's face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Percy she can't come! She won't be able to cross the barrier!"

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head … was his head. And the points that looked like horns …

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But…"

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at Lilly, and at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

"I'll take care of mom just get across the property line!" Lilly yelled.

"Both of you go!" Mom yelled.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom, Lilly you too."

"I told you-"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. Lilly pulled something out of her pocket, then it turned into a knife. She started to run in the direction of the bull-man. "What are you doing!" I yelled. "I've been doing this for years I'll be fine just get across the barrier!" She yelled. I grabbed her arm and dragged her along even though she didn't really want too.

Together, mom and I draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min-"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

The pine tree was still way to far-a hundred yards uphill at least.

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

Oops.

" That does it." Lilly took off before I could stop her. "Lilly!" Mom yelled.

"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping me near you? But-"

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. Lilly slashed him several times. He turned towards her. He charged at her but she jumped out of the way.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said." The bull man was about to charge at my sister again, but I yelled "Hey!"

The creature turned towards the sound of my voice. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

"Percy you're going across that barrier if I have to pick you up and throw you!" Lilly yelled.

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"Mom!"

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply … gone.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

I stripped off my red rain jacket.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea-a stupid idea,

but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

How did I do that?

I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off. Lilly was trying to stab the bull man but with the way he kept moving around she would get crushed before she succeeded.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.

The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

The monster was gone.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, Lilly and I picked him up . I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.

"Percy she'll be fine." Lilly said after I called for mom again.

"What do you mean fine! Are seeing the same thing I am?" I asked.

"She's not gone." Lilly said. I didn't have the strength to argue.

The last thing I remember is Lilly catching me before I hit my head on the floor of a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

**A/N The chapters are going to get longer and also, I didn't tell any more of Lilly's past so that way you would know enough about her but she could still talk about some battles you haven't heard of. I hope this chapter turned out okay I'm a bit nervous about it.**


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Rick Riordan does.

**I Play Pinochle With a Horse **

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. Lilly was there too, until she saw my eyes open she looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

I managed to croak, "What?"

She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"Annabeth!" Lilly said.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't…"

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl Lilly had referred to as Annabeth, quickly filled my mouth with pudding.

The next time I woke up, the girl and Lilly were gone.

A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them-on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.

When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.

My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.

"Careful," a familiar voice said.

Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.

So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And …

"You saved my life," Grover said. "I… well, the least I could do … I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."

Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.

Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.

"The Minotaur," I said.

"Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"

"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."

Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"

"My mom. Is she really …"

He looked down.

I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm-I'm the worst satyr in the world."

He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.

"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.

Thunder rolled across the clear sky.

As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.

Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.

But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.

I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with … Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.

Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever-looked as if he expected to be hit.

I said, "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."

"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"

"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least… I was."

"But why …" I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.

I recoiled at the taste,

because I was expecting apple juice.

It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies-my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.

Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

"Was it good?" Grover asked.

I nodded.

"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.

"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."

His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just… wondered."

"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."

He sighed. "And how do you feel?"

"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."

"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"

"What do you mean?"

He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.

My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.

As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.

We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. Lilly was standing next to her. Lilly looked like she had been chased by ghost all the way here until she saw me. Then she smiled.

The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.

He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.

"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. Well except for your sister..." He pointed to Lilly, and I wondered if this was where she had been coming. " And you already know Chiron… ." Grover continued.

He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.

First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.

"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.

The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.

"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."

He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you." Lilly walked over to us and shot a death glare at Mr.D. "You'll be happy." She told him. He glared at her but to my surprise didn't say anything.

"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.

She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."

She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.

She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.

Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."

She was about to take off when Lilly caught her arm. She looked Annabeth and they had some silent message thing, and then Lilly let her go.

Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D … does that stand for something?"

"It means drug-head." Lilly told me.

Mr.D ignored her.

Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."

"House call?"

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to … ah, take a leave of absence."

I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.

"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.

Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."

"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.

"I'm afraid not," I said.

"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.

"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.

"It only takes four muscles for me to extend my arm and slap you... sir." Lilly said. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

"Shut up Lyla." He told her.

"I will once you get my name right." He said. Then he started to tell me how to play the stupid card game.

"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."

"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.

"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron-why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"

Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question." Lilly smacked the back of his head. "I defeated your father a million times so if you were smart you would hush-up and treat my brother with respect." Lilly told him. He pretended not to hear her.

The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.

Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.

"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'

"She said …" I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."

"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?" Lilly sat in between me and the camp director. "Ow!" he yelled all of a sudden. He glared at Lilly "That was my foot!" "Opps." Lilly said sarcastically.

"What do you mean bid?" I asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.

"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."

"Orientation film?" I asked.

"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"-he pointed to the horn in the shoe box-"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods-the forces you call the Greek gods-are very much alive."

I stared at the others around the table.

I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Eh? Oh, all right."

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.

"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."

"Well, now," Chiron said. "God-capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."

"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"

"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."

"Smaller?"

"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."

"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."

And there it was again-distant thunder on a cloudless day.

"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."

"Ow!" he yelled again while Lilly smirked.

"But they're stories," I said. "They're-myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."

"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody-"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals-they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."

I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if… he wasn't.

It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.

"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"

I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.

"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.

"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"

My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."

Lilly put her hand on top of mine, "Percy all of the gods are real, I've battled them and everything else, belive me." I didn't know how to respond to that.

"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of the gods incinerates you."

"I won't let them." Lilly said.

Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."

"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.

"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"

More thunder.

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."

"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.

"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away-the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."

Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.

"And …" I stammered, "your father is …"

"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."

I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.

"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D."

"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"

"Well from the way you were chasing that wood nymph yes." Lilly said. Dionysus glared.

"You're a god." I said.

"Yes, child."

"A god. You."

He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.

"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.

"No. No, sir."

"I would love to." Lilly said.

"Lilly hush." Chiron told her.

The fire died a little. Mr.D turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."

I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.

"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."

Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."

Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."

He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.

"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.

Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been … ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"

"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."

"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like … in America?"

"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."

"The what?"

"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know-or as I hope you know, since you passed my course-the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps-Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on-but the same forces, the same gods."

"And then they died."

"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not-and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either-America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."

It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.

"Who are you, Chiron? Who … who am I?"

"I'll save that for a time when you're not so shaken up." Lilly said.

Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, we all know that if Lilly is your sister... But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."

And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear,

but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.

I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.

"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Rick Riordan does. Does anyone like this story or am I just wasting my time? Everyone is entitled to their opinion but if you don't like it I recommend you don't read it. If no one likes this story I am going to take it down.

I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom 

Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front. Lilly was trying to explain everything, but was failing terribly.

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him." Some said "There's two of them!". Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.

"So how long have you been coming here?" I asked Lilly.

"Since I was six so about... 11 years." She told me.

"Yes Lilly has been here longer than any other camper." Chiron said.

" So why am I even here?" I asked, I was still _so_ confused.

"It's about our father." Lilly said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's a god." She said this like it was just that simple.

"What do you...?" before I could finish she cut me off.

"Poseidon." She said.

"I don't know how to process that." I said.

"That's why I wanted to wait to tell you , although you will have to stay in the Hermes cabin until your claimed." I wasn't sure what that ment, but I didn't feel like asking.

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized-four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

"I'll explain some time." Lilly said.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.

I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean … he was a good protector. Really."

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!"

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate … ah … fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?" I asked. Lilly cringed for no apparent reason.

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age… ."

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career… ."

"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.

"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real …"

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

Lilly looked at me, "Percy, I know what your thinking and it probably won't work."

Chiron's expression darkened.

"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now … until we know more … I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

"My own-?"

Lilly took to crayons out of her pocket, one turned into a bronze knife, the other into a black sheild.

" We can get you a sheild later as for your sword I think you have one." She said.

"What?" I asked.

"Take out the pen I gave you and click it."

I was doubtful but I did, sure enough it turned into a three foot long sword. "I'll visit the armory later to get you a sheild." Chiron said.

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.

"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.

Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.

Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.

"Correct," Chiron said.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.

Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway "That's my cabin." Lilly said before smiling. Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

"It won't hurt him Chiron." Lilly said. She opened the door more and lead me inside.

It was a salty scent, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. There was one bed that was messed up a little, and there were papers scattered all over the place. I smiled. That was Lilly for you. We continued to look around. Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number five was bright red-a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.

"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."

Lilly laughed, "You got that right."

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really …" I didn't get the chance to finish.

He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."

"But, shouldn't you be dead?"

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish … and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Why depressing?"

Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.

"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.

When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.

I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it… ? A caduceus.

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. Lilly caught my arm.

There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything. They all stopped when Lilly glared at them, I wasn't sure why everyone was afraid of her.

Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."

Everybody groaned.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."

The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.

Annabeth saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."

I wasn't sure why, but Lilly seemed pretty uncomfortable.

"For now?" I asked Annabeth.

"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.

I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

"How long will I be here?" I asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers all laughed. Lilly glared again and they shut-up.

"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"I've already seen it."

"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside, Lilly followed. When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

Lilly smacked her arm.

"Watch it!" Annabeth told her.

"What's your problem?" I asked Annabeth. I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy-"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories …"

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So …"

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."

I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fur … I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep."

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or … your parent."

She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say-"

"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me."

"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How-"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

"Hush Annabeth." Lilly said.

I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD-you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like … you went through the same thing?"

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar."

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."

A half-blood.

I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.

Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"

I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"

"You had better take that back!" Lilly said.

"Or what!"

"Or I'll..." Before Lilly could finish Annabeth interrupted.

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

I blinked. "Like … the war god?"

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."

Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.

I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom. Lilly was beating up the other three girls.

I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking-as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out-that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.

Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.

Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.

I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.

I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall. She tried to get back up, but then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted her back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed her right out of the bathroom, her them around like a piece of garbage being washed away.

As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock. Lilly came in and looked around at the mess. Then she smiled and gave me the thumbs up, like she had known I had done it.

I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.

I stood up, my legs shaky.

Annabeth said, "How did you …"

"I don't know."

We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse was sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth." Lilly smiled, "I told you he was my brother." Clarisse's friends walked over, they had several bruises and slashes. I looked at Lilly, she only had a couple of bruises. She must have beaten those girls up pretty bad.

Clarisse's friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.

"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own this. Lilly's dream is from the Lightning Theif movie so credits to them. Also this chapter is in Lilly's point of view. It took me two hours to change this to Lilly's point of view so I hope you like it. I'm sorry this chapter is short.

**Our dinner Goes up in Smoke **

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever we went, campers pointed at Percy and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.

We showed Percy a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of Pan), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. I found it to not be challenging enough.

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets." Percy said.

"Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault."

"It was Percy's fault but he didn't do it on purpose Annabeth." I said.

She looked at Percy skeptically, and he seemed to realize it was his fault. I wanted to help, but I wasn't sure how. I knew he was overwhelmed, at least he got to see Annabeth covered in toilet water. That was funny.

"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.

"Who?" He asked.

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."Annabeth said.

"The oracle is that thing you saw move in the attic, her spirit is still there and she gives clues to heros about their future, she used to go out with Hades." I said. I didn't know why Zeus killed her if they didn't have any demigods. At least I don't think that they did... I always got suspicious when I thought about it.

Percy stared into the lake. When he saw the Naiads he jumped. I guess I couldn't blame him. They waved to him. Percy seemed confused but he waved back."Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"They're fine." I said starting to get annoyed with her attitude towards my brother.

"Naiads," Percy repeated. "That's it. I want to go home now."

I hugged him. He seemed surprised.

"Look Percy I know this is hard for you, but you are home. Look I promise I will get mom back and try to fix this, but I'm not sure how yet." I said.

"So there is a way to get mom back?" Percy asked.

"There might be but like I said I'm not sure, although I don't want you to try to get her back it's too dangerous Percy and I don't want to put you in any more danger." He nodded but I got the feeling if I went he'd end up coming with me.

"Percy our father is Poseidon, he's the god of the sea, and not to mention one of the big three." I said. I smiled when I thought about my father. I wouldn't want any other god or goddess to be my parent.

Percy turned towards Annabeth. "Who's your father?" He asked.

Annabeth's hand tightened on her spear. I wasn't in the mood to listen to her insult my brother again so I answered for her.

"Her mother is Athena."

"You know I could have answered that myself." Annabeth said.

"Can you answer it without being rude?" I asked.

"Oh shut up." She told me.

"Wait what was that summer solstice you asked me about?" Percy asked before I could slap Annabeth.

"Something went missing from Olympus, but Chiron won't tell me." Annabeth said, the two continued to talk but I was to busy thinking about the dream I had the night before.

Zeus looked at my father. They were standing at the top of Olympus looking at the sky. There were thunder clouds, but no lightning. "Tell me what you see." Zeus said. "Thunder clouds, but no lightning." My father said. Zeus didn't say anything. "What you think I took it?" Poseidon said. "No, I think your son did." Zeus said. "He doesn't even know who he is." Poseidon said obviously annoyed. "Your son had better bring me the lightning bolt by the summer solstice or there will be war!" Zeus said before vanishing into midair.

Now I knew why I had that dream. Dad needed help.

"I'll be right back!" I said abruptly before running off to find Chiron. I ran into the big house. He and the wine dude were sitting at a table playing that stupid card game. "Chiron!" I yelled. "Do you mind?" Dionysus asked. "Actually yes could you please leave?" I asked. "Lilly what's going on?" Chiron asked. "Zeus's lightning bolt has been stolen and Percy is the suspect." I said. Chiron looked worried. "Oh the tragedy." Dionysus said sarcastically. I smacked him. "Hey you had better watch it!" Dionysus yelled. "If you want to stay out of my life then STAY OUT!" I yelled. To my surprise he didn't say anything. I had been almost certain he would. Chiron and I talked for hours about what we could do. In fact I didn't leave until it was time for dinner.

At dinner about twenty kids sat at the Hermes table including Percy. There were a few kids at the Athena table that had her honey colored hair and gray eyes. I guess Athena must like blonde guys, because they didn't get that from their mother. I was sitting alone at the Poseidon table, and I wished Percy could come over and sit with me. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. One girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill. Although I was used to this.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Grover was sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and Dionysus sons Pollux and Castor who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

Clarisse had gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, and all sorts of other stuff. I just took a couple of carrots. Besides that all I drank was started going up to the fire and I did too. When it was my turn I tossed in one of my carrots. "Poseidon." I said. Please just claim Percy. I prayed . Then I went back to my seat. When Percy went up he looked like he didn't know what to say. He just tossed in some of his dinner.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Dionysus got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," He continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson." Now Dionysus could call me Lyla or whatever he wanted, but when it came to my brother, I don't think so!

"It's Percy Jackson, you crazy old drunk!" I yelled.

"Watch your mouth!" Mr.D.

"That's a biological impossibility!"

"Just shut up Lilly, for once in you life!"

"Oh whatever Mr.D!" His expression quickly went from angry to confused.

"You called me Mr.D." He pointed out helpfully.

"You called me Lilly." I said. The entire camp cracked up laughing when we both sat down and didn't say another word to each other.

Afterwords, we all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and everybody except me ate s'mores and joked around. Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I had trouble sleeping so I walked over to a spot in the middle of the room. During the campfire Percy had told me to keep his Minotaur's horn safe so I decided to keep it with all my other treasures. I made sure no one was watching, then I lifted up the floor board. Underneath, were several items so powerful if Mr.D knew I had them he might kick me out of camp. I put the Minotaur's horn down there and took out a box. I looked around again, then I opened up the box. Inside there were blue flowers that literally glowed, magical feathers, and a whole bunch of other magical things. The ingredients to make blue potion, only the most dangerous potion in the world. I was waiting for the right time to use it, but I wasn't sure when. Athena was the only person in the world that had the recipe except for me. I had tricked her into giving it to me a couple of years ago. I dug to the bottom of the box and checked to make sure the recipe was still there. Yep. I put the box back and dug around for what I was really looking for. I pulled it out. It was a silver pin of a flying fish. It smelled like sea water. It was a gift from my father several years ago. Any time I left camp I took it with me. I once again made sure no one was looking and put everything back. I also had lots of other stuff down there, but it was mostly drachmas and stuff. I laid down in my bed and closed my eyes. I knew it wouldn't be long before there was lots of choas to deal with.


End file.
